How much does it cost to lose a format war? One billion dollars (cue maniacal chuckles)

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Now that the dramatic climax to the HD format war is past, Toshiba is starting to pick up the pieces. Naturally, it’s expected to post some big losses after HD DVD’s failed campaign against Blu-ray and the Nikkei Business Daily reckons it can put a figure on just how much it all comes too. Even more conveniently, it rounds out to make a good headline too, to the tune of $1 billion – or 500 million quid if you prefer.

Well, actually, it’s 100 billion Yen. That’s more like $976.75 million, but what’s the odd $23 million here and there? It’s all gone now, so not much point worrying about it, eh? (This is probably why I never became an accountant).

Toshiba hasn’t confirmed these figures yet. But relatively speaking, it doesn’t seem all that bad – consider that this figure is just a quarter of what Microsoft is believed to have lost on the original Xbox. And that wasn’t even a failure. Kind of puts things in perspective.

In case you’re still worried that this might be a portent of doom for Tosh, I wouldn’t bother. Its operating profits for this year are still expected to come to about 250 billion Yen according to the same report. So… HD DVD 2 as of next year then?